


Strength and Adaptability

by scurvaliciousbay



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Jaal Has Feelings, Pre-Relationship, Sexy Spar Trope, Vanguard Ryder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 23:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10864482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scurvaliciousbay/pseuds/scurvaliciousbay
Summary: Jaal said he wanted to train with Ryder, but a spar was not what he initially had in mind.Set after my other work, Physicality, but can be read independently.





	Strength and Adaptability

When Ryder suggested that they should get together to train, he expected a teaching session...not a spar. Jaal was unsure about the proposition. Ryder was much smaller than he was, even with all her muscles and strength, she barely came to his shoulder, and he was easily much broader than she. This did not seem to daunt Ryder in the slightest however, as she stretched and warmed up.

 

Several of the other crew were around, standing and watching and probably making bets on what was going to happen. He suspected Gil was the one manning the pot on who’d win, while Drack had bet the most because he figured he knew how the spar was going to go. 

 

“My money’s on Ryder,” Vetra said in a measuring tone. 

 

“Angara are much more densely muscled, Vetra, not to mention significantly larger.” Dr. T’Perro was correct. Angara were a robust people, much more so than the thinly skinned, squishier humans. But Vetra shook her head.

 

“He’s got strength, sure, but humans are adaptable, able to change tactics quickly and apply them to new combatants. Why do you think they did so well in the First Contact War? Bet’s on Ryder.” 

 

That was...good to know. He figured whatever he learned here he should forward to Evfra. 

 

His eyes lingered on Ryder as she lifted her hands over her head. He watched her shoulders move, propelling her arms up in a smooth, sinuous motion that was both unerring and beautiful in how clear it was for the different parts of her moved. Perhaps that was how humans were open - with their bodies rather than their hearts. 

 

Jaal wondered what it would feel like, to touch her while she was moving like that. Would he feel her specific movements? Her skin so thin and expressive that it even turned color when she was embarrassed or angry. He almost didn’t feel the need to take her apart to understand how she worked, but oh he was curious. He wanted to know the intricacies of her body and her mind. 

 

For tactical reasons, of course. Understanding the Pathfinder was a tactical desire. The Resistance had to be prepared. 

 

Except that it wasn’t a purely tactical desire. His curiosity expanded well into territory he was sure both his mothers and Evfra would disapprove of. He didn’t want to just understand humans, he wanted to understand Ryder. What made her...her. 

 

She turned from Liam, her head doing a rather human gesture of rolling backwards to her back and shoulders, exposing the long column of her neck. She lacked a bulge in the neck that males of her species seemed to usually have. He wondered why. 

 

For a man not interested in biology, Ryder’s was certainly….intriguing him. 

 

_ “No interest in biology at all?”  _ She had asked and he suddenly had the urge to retract his affirmation. And his assertion that her showing off after his sarcasm was pathetic. She was...passionate, just not in the way he was used to seeing. 

 

So of course when he had seen her in the Sports Bra and tight pants, her hair done in an odd bunched style that lead to rope looking things over her shoulders, asking if he was ready to spar, all he could say was - “ _ yes”.  _

 

“Bet’s on Jaal, man’s built like a brick house,” Liam said, walking over to Gil. 

 

Drack was oddly silent on the matter as Jaal and Ryder took their positions in the hangar bay. 

 

“This is stupid, they could get hurt,” Cora protested.

 

“That’s why the doc’s here!” Liam answered. 

 

Jaal tuned the others out and focused all his attention on Ryder. She seemed so small out of her armor, still larger than Cora and definitely Suvi, but...small. And delicate. 

 

He turned to circle her and she followed suit, not willing to give him ground. She knew this part then, a universal gesture? They walked, and he watched her odd legs move her distinctly forward. He knew she could go backwards by seeing how she fought in combat, but she was in armor with a jump jet then, movement was modified somewhat. 

 

Taking a chance, he lunged first. She dodged him easily, turning to the right and ending up behind him. A blow landed on his side, just shy of his abdomen - not a particularly sensitive area for the angara. He required no recovery as he turned and threw his leg out, knocking her flat on her ass. She fell with as much grace as she could and rolling quickly away from him, springing to her feet.

 

He lunged again. She dodged once more. He reached for her and he saw her eyes dart around his arm before she turned and...grabbed his arm. 

 

Skkut. 

 

She stepped back, holding his arm and landed a hit on his back. Again, not the best place, but she was learning, he’d give her that. 

 

He turned quickly, yanking his arm from her grasp to swing back and grab her. He picked her up to find that humans are  _ incredibly bendy _ . 

 

She flailed in his grasp in what seemed to be erratic, only he grunted as he suddenly found himself on the ground, flat on his back with a rolling away Ryder. 

 

He blinked and got to his feet only to have a charging Ryder on his hands. He hopped up and around, evading her completely. 

 

A chorus of “ohs!” sounded from the rest of the crew. Ryder was quick to correct herself though and she was grinning. Water trickling down her brow, her skin red like when she was embarrassed. But the grin and the fact that she was still there, looking at him directly suggested that she wasn’t embarrassed. Was she flushed like this because of the physical activity? 

 

Did...all physical activity make her red like this? 

 

It was a distracting thought that allowed her time to charge and enter a grapple with him. She punched at him and he blocked her quickly, catching up to strike out himself. He landed a hit on just below her shoulder, and she gasped, eyes wide in a universal gesture of shock. But her face hardened nigh instantaneously and suddenly she was flipping and moving and he was crashing to the floor.

 

Her thighs squeezed around his head, her calves locked around his neck, feet at his clavicle. He could smell her sweat, feel the smoothness of the skin of her calves just below her pants. Smooth with the hint of a prickle that he didn’t quite understand. 

 

Jaal thrust himself off the ground, or tried to, only to find himself stuck to Ryder who was  _ not  _ moving from her spot. Did humans have the ability to control their mass? Was she suddenly heavier? 

 

He reached up, his air slowly constricting from his throat, to pull at her legs. All he accomplished was rolling them to an even more uncomfortable position. She wasn’t going anywhere, so Jaal did the one thing he could do.

 

He went limp. 

 

Her legs released him momentarily.

 

“Jaal, are you okay? Jaal -

 

He flipped her over and pinned her. She gasped and flailed into him. Or arched. It was difficult to tell which was which with her like this. She was close and he could feel her soft, strong body straining against his larger one. He was stronger than her, holding her down like this it was obvious, but when he felt her foot press against his hip too late did he realize that Vetra was right.

 

As strong as he was, she was adaptable. 

 

She kicked and sent him flying, landing on his back. She chased him down into a pin and held a hand to...his main artery in his frill. Ah. She guessed right at last. And had won.

 

He knew someone was counting down but all he could do was stare up at the woman on top of him, stunned. And more than a bit aroused. 

 

Her chest heaved with her breath and her...chest moved against the Sports Bra. Stray hair fell out of the ropes she had constructed. Her skin was redder and shining and he had the strangest desire to taste her. 

 

Her head tilted, the hair ropes moving with her. Intriguing. Strange. 

 

Beautiful. 

 

She grinned and punched his shoulder before standing up.

 

“I win, Ama Darav. Good show though, you’re tougher than you look.”

 

“Do I appear weak?” He asked, confused by why she would say he was tougher than he was.

 

“Idiom, big guy. And no, you don’t look weak, just….” she trailed off, nibbling on her bottom lip in a gesture he had come to associate with bashfulness.

 

“The prettiest angara you’ve seen?” He answered in a low tone so the others would not hear. Her face, already red, flushed even more deeply.

 

“Umm.”

 

“Told you guys that Ryder would win,” Vetra claimed loudly.

 

“Cough it up, Gil.”

 

“Hold on, Drack gets the biggest share, he bet two hundred on Ryder.”

 

Ryder turned around, “You bet that much on me?”

 

“Of course, kid, everyone knows that as soon as you bet against a human they prove you wrong.” 

 

Jaal looked back over to Ryder and couldn’t help but smile. The krogan had a point. These humans seemed to be full of surprises and proving people wrong. Particularly Ryder.

 

“You spar well, Ryder, but I will not underestimate you next time.”

 

“If there’s going to be a next time, Jaal, call me Erika. Feels weird for someone trying to hit me not calling me by my first name,” she said, backing up to where a towel was slung over a chair. 

 

Erika. A name not so far from the sounds in Shelesh. 

 

Erika Ryder. 

 

Later that night, Jaal sat down at his terminal and began to compose his report to Evfra. 

 

_ Evfra, _

 

_ I sparred with the human pathfinder, Ryder, today. She is quite the skilled hand-to-hand combatant, even for not knowing angaran physiology. One of the other crew members, a turian by the name of Vetra Nyx, said something to me today that we should keep in mind with the humans. For as strong as the angara are, the humans are adaptable. Humans are able to adjust their behavior surprisingly quickly based on their observations.  _

 

_ This is only one species of the many that have arrived but it seems that this could be a great advantage to have against the kett. They change their tactics so frequently...perhaps the humans will be able to adapt to it better than we have been able to, or to help us adapt.  _

 

_ This crew is….these people are good, Evfra. I feel that they truly do not wish the angara harm or ill will.  _

 

_ Ryder is willing to share information about her people with me and I am going to take her up on it. I am learning much. _

  
_ Jaal  _

**Author's Note:**

> Yes that title is a reference to Reach and Flexibility, I'm a Shakarian girl at heart, so here's that reference. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave kudos, comment, bookmark - let me know what you think!


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